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Smittie™ Plastic Production System
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Advanced control of directional forces and tearing through calibrated grooves to achieve performance and lower costs in parts, sheets and packaging
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Field of the Innovation
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Design and automated production of plastic polymer materials or final products using web extrusion, casting, thermoforming, or vacuforming. The invention produces predicable bi-axial or mono-axial orientation in polymer materials to achieve exacting performance requirements.
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- Enables innovation in packaging, medical, consumer and construction product
- Reduces resin required by up to 25%, lowering costs and increasing margins while still achieving top performance
- Makes greener materials like PET cost-competitive with polystyrene
- Safer and more consumer-friendly packaging yet still reduces theft
Problems of Current Methods
Before expensive tooling and specialized expertise were needed, making short runs and design changes costly and time-consuming. Chilled rollers were required for stretching the plastic as it cooled to orient the polymers in the direction in which they were stretched. Chill rolls are energy intensive and increase start-up waste, both adding to production costs. There are challenges in predicting the tooling and method to achieve the desired output with current methods that are addressed by Smittie™. Controlled tear lines and stay-open bags are enabled by Smitties
How do Smitties Work?
Shape, dimensions and frequency of molded-in or imprinted grooves or cross-sectional shapes on one or both sides change the structural geometry of the polymers in predictable ways.
Performance Outcomes
- Advanced control of directional stiffness/flexibility for adhesion, flexure, internal structure and edges
- Achieve site-specific (spot) or full-web performance characteristics axial, transverse or both to the flow of material. For example it allows edges to be more flexible than inner surfaces
- Create parts with lift or hold-down forces in one direction yet are flexible in the other. Imagine potato chip bags that stay wide open or wearables
- Permits design of a controlled-tear line that requires a notch to start the safe-edge tear
- Increases adherence of dyes, adhesives, medications, fragrances, antimicrobial agents, pesticides and the like by increasing surface area of the material
- Create hidden scores to ease folding
- Provides macro- or micro-channels or reservoirs for package ventilation or liquid management
- Gain strength in two-layer film to create “cardboard-like” material for greater rigidity with a sealed edge, eliminating the possibility of dirt or biological contamination
- Laminate a peel-off protective cover for adhesive
Aesthetic Outcomes
- High level of transparency, comparable to current “clear plastic” packaging
- Aesthetic textures such as matte, fabric, leather, or a combination in continuous or repeating designs, photos, illustrations, watermarks or typography
Production Properties & Advantages
- Predictably engineer the flexibility, stiffness and memory of polymer. Method correlates loading modeling and test loads
- Applies to: webforming, casting, thermoforming, or vacuforming
- Suitable materials: ABS, HDPE, LDPE, HMWPE, polypropylene, PET, PETG, polystyrene, polyurethane, vinyl, linoleum, rubber compounds, acrylics, nylon, and biodegradable resins such as corn derivatives.
- Smittied sheets can be cut, slit or die-stamped into desired shapes
- Imprint micro-patterns into hot material (400○ F) at about 25’/minute without need for complex equipment to stretch it during cooling to re-orient molecules to achieve desired performance
- Intuitive software aids engineering with Smitties
New Product Ideas
- Medical supplies & devices including casts, splints, slings & bandages
- Packaging functionality and aesthetics
- Plastic products & components
- Flooring with channels for circulating heat or cool liquids or gasses
- Construction sheeting & membranes
- o Tool-less installation achieved with a tearing grid and tacky adhesive
- o Incorporate anti-mildew agents and insect repellents in the product
- o Use grooved material to set up or contain “clean rooms”
License this Solution
The Smittie™ Plastic Production System is available for exclusive field-of-use licensing in all applications except nasal dilators. The intellectual property is protected as copyright, trade secrets and a pending patent
Licensee Deliverables
- Design methods, formulas, engineering software, and benchmark data
- Access to samples and data from production testing done on Eastman Chemical’s pilot line
- Patent priority date of August 30, 2006, US application filed August 30, 2007: US 2008/0058858 published March 6, 2008, 24 claims. International protection available: PCT/US2007/077313.
- Deep-pocket funding of patent prosecution, top-notch patent attorney to protect your competitive advantage for 20 years
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Applications for Smittie Technology
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Packaging
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Health/Medical Products
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Consumer Products
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Industrial Products
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Construction sheeting
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For more technical or licensing information
contact Clyde Hanson, exclusive representative of the Smittie™ technology
Over 36,000 more patents available to license
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